White, black, green and even red: pepper comes in a myriad of colours and is used for much more than pepper sauce. Meet your new best friend in the kitchen!
The kinds of peppers
From the Piper Nigrum species, we can obtain the following four peppers:
· Black, dried, the most fragrant and the spiciest
· The green, harvested before ripening and often brined, softer and aromatic (if it is brined, it must be rinsed before use)
· The red, picked at full maturity, which works wonders in desserts
· White, which is a red pepper whose envelope has been removed, has a very sweet flavour and is easily digested.
Its usefulness in cooking
One often underestimates all the magic that there is in one or two generous pinches of pepper. Try it: in your next recipe, put half less salt and twice as much pepper than usual. The flavours will be greatly enhanced! And no, your mouth will not set on fire.
Above all, always use fresh ground pepper. The old stale pepper in a bag opened in 2010 tastes nothing!